Press Release  AG Campbell Cites High-End Boston Restaurant Over $1.8 Million For ‘Tip Pool’ Violations

Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell today announced that her office has issued citations against Azumi LLC (Azumi), a Boston-based contemporary Japanese restaurant doing business as Zuma, and its manager Garrett Ronan, for requiring service employees to share their tips with employees who exercised managerial duties, in violation of the state’s wage and hour laws. The citation, totaling approximately $1,813,850, includes penalties and restitution for unpaid wages, with some individual employees receiving as much as $50,000.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) alleges that between July 2022 and July 2024, the restaurant allowed some employees with managerial duties (“Captains”) to illegally participate in a tip pool with service staff at the restaurant. 

The AGO began investigating the matter upon receiving a complaint from a worker alleging that in July of 2022, employees who had been promoted continued to participate in the restaurant’s tip pool, despite being ineligible due to their new managerial duties. 

Massachusetts wage laws allow tip pooling, but only wait staff, service bartenders, and other service employees can take part. Even if managers and supervisors help to serve customers, they cannot share in a tip pool on a day when they have any managerial responsibilities.  

This matter is part of Attorney General Campbell’s ongoing efforts to protect workers from exploitation, ensure workers are paid the wages they are owed, and hold employers who violate labor and wage laws accountable. The restitution these employees will receive is just a portion of the millions of dollars the Attorney General’s Office has secured for Massachusetts workers since the start of AG Campbell’s term. 

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Tallulah Knopp and Investigator Matija Zizanovic, both of the AGO’s Fair Labor Division, which is tasked with enforcing the state’s wage and hour and other employment laws.   

Workers in Massachusetts who believe their workplace rights have been violated are encouraged to file a complaint with the AGO’s Fair Labor Division at mass.gov/ago/fld. For more information about the state’s employment laws, workers may call the AGO’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or visit mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for information available in multiple languages.   

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